Two militants killed in encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag; gunfight occured in residential area

Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir's Anantnag town on Wednesday morning following a tip-off about their presence inside a house.

Two terrorists were trapped inside a house in a congested residential area, near Lal Chowk, Times Now reported.

The encounter started after a joint team of army, Jammu and Kashmir police, and CRPF conducted a siege operation at Mehmaan Mohalla in Lal Chowk.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Anantnag) Altaf Khan and his team were monitoring the situation.

Representational image. PTI

Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) Swayam Prakash Pani said, "This was a difficult operation as it was in a crowded locality. All civilians were evacuated and the room intervention team completed the operation. There was no collateral damage."

Giving details of the encounter, the police said security forces launched the operation in the early hours. This was the first operation within Anantnag town after a gap of 12 years.

As the security forces advanced towards the suspect house, the terrorists hiding inside fired on the security forces, which retaliated, resulting in an encounter, they said.

On the basis of the materials seized, it was established that they belonged to proscribed terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba and one of them was identified as Bilal Ahmad Dar alias Bin Yamin Dar, a resident of Kulgam, the police said.

As per police records, 26 year-old Bilal passed class 12th and joined militancy in June 2017. He was involved in series of terror acts and was a close Shakoor Dar, divisional commander of Lashker-e-Taiba, who was killed earlier this month, they said.